One gamer's journey through the wide world of games and gaming culture.

So I didn’t want to inflate my PAX post with this so I’ve decided to give it a post unto itself. WoW: Cataclysm was the cause of the single argument I managed to have at PAX (which ya know being around a ton of strangers pushing on each other is significant enough). I found myself arguing with a boy of younger age than me. OK to be honest I have no idea how old he was I’d say over 16 less than 22. Again, I’m not good at the whole guessing age thing.

Wandering around the Blizzard area I of course was drawn to the Cataclysm hands on demo. Which I made a beeline to watch, completely ignoring the trailer they had playing (go figure the Hub hadn’t seen it yet. Somehow I managed not to force him to watch previously…buut same trailer that I can see on the web the graphics just aren’t epic enough for me to want it on a big screen, unlike say the Star Wars: Old Republic which did look sweet on a big screen.)

So there is a young blond…mmm guy standing there and another younger looking guy walks up to him to check it out and I’m standing a few steps back taking in the demo the blond had been doing. (blondie is now G1 and dark haired is now G2 for reference k?) So G2 walks up to G1 and is all, “wow so that is what the goblins look like!” (score for enthusiasm) G1 proceeds to launch into this tirade about how this is the worst thing ever (not mind you because of the goblins) “They are changing the world and it is just horrible they are ruining the classic wow…” he droned on but my mouth opened and words started coming out in Blizzard’s defense before my brain could engage to tell me this was a moronic argument to have in the first place. So! I’m going to share with you why this is freaking brilliant of Blizzard in case you like G1 don’t get it.

If the world changes new players will not experience wow the same way we have. Yes, this is true. However, the game evolves and I know plenty of people who never experienced Classic WoW like I did because they came to the game after BC. Does that mean WoW shouldn’t release new content because it changes how people play the game? No! I mean I don’t know anyone who actively raided 40 man content when it was out (who actually has a life out of the game) that wants to go back to raiding that way. AQ is tapped on my server which means no one now is going to go through and experience the push to open the gates. The Naxx that was is gone. There is no more Atiesh shards to be gotten. So this argument of experiencing the world the same is BS.

Which really feeds into why I think this is a great thing on behalf of Blizzard and why I likely dismissed G1’s comments out of hand. He was too young to remember UO or play EQ. Do you remember those games? I sure as heck do. I remember slaving my soul (and rl free time) to be a competative raider in EQ. ( I hated PKers too much to stick with UO ) The worlds didn’t really change so much. I mean to advance the plot and timeline for EQ they released…EQ2. (and we all know how well that game did) Instead, Blizz has done a good job advancing the time and plot via their expansions.

This is important because one of the greatest pitfalls of any MMO is repetition. A certain amount of repetition is unavoidable (hell collection and kill quests!) however when the world is stagnant players will look elsewhere for something and/or different. It is the old static vs dynamic environment. Lots of games have tried to capture the need for a dynamic changing world. Often times they fall short, take WAR I love the game but even with flipping the zones the world is static (btw I am picked them because there is an active component in the game to flip areas) WoW does the same thing with Wintergrasp, Hellfire Peninsula, Halaa…etc You get the idea. You flip an area to control to gain X benefit. But ultimately the world is still static.

I believe making the changes via expansions is the better route because you feel your game world evolving without having to go buy a whole new game. Interest wanes the longer a game is out, interest renews as expansions are released. It is an easy roller coaster to watch. I remember the explosion of people coming back to WoW after BC was released. ( I HATE queuing for my server btw still to this day)

So world changing? GOOD. Finally Blizzard is really listening to people when they say “Give us a reason to go back to the old world” Well honey they announced they are. People asked for goblins to be playable for years now, we are getting that one too. This is a win for us! They are streamlining gear itemization so you don’t have to freaking go research 40 pages on a forum to figure out what gear you should be wearing. WIN!Blizzard keeps us interested which keeps us paying. Win for them!

Players: WIN dynamic world WIN goblin as a player race WIN streamlined gear WIN reason to be in the old world instead of slumming (and Goldshire good times)